train services in the late 1990s

[paulrf]

Can anyone give me details of a train service I remember using some time between 1998 and 2001. I started in Blackpool (may have changed at Preston) and the trains destination was Hawich Parkstone Quay.

[mushroom25]

for many years there had been a service from the north-west to Harwich. until the end of the sixties it ran from manchester via sheffield and lincoln, in the 70s its route was changed to take in nottingham and peterborough. for a while in the 1980s it started in scotland and ran via the west coast main line via birmingham.

with the advent of sprinter trains in the early 90s, the service ran from liverpool lime street to harwich, using the same route as used in the 70s, but through services to harwich ended around the time of privatisation, when trains north from harwich were terminated at peterborough.

today, a journey from manchester to harwich requires changes at peterborough, ipswich (or norwich) and manningtree.

[Jonathan-Joe]

This website gives names for the trains Mushroom mentioned - http://www.joyce.whit...rnet.co.uk/namers.htm

The Britannia (Harwich Parkeston Quay - Manchester Piccadilly)
The European (Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central - Harwich Parkeston Quay)
The Loreley (Harwich Parkeston Quay - Liverpool Lime Street and Birmingham New Street)
The North West Dane (Harwich - Blackpool North, late 1980s)

[Mosaic]

Am I imagining things...but if you chose your connections, can't you still make the same trip? I just have a recollection last time I was at Stansted of there being a train that connected to Stockport. Is it one of these routes that is still quite feasible but for their own reasons the train companies don't promote?

[Jonathan-Joe]

The OP isn't asking about current services involving changes but the direct service offered in the past.

[Mosaic]

ooo JJ, handbags out. I was just talking....

[Buenchico]

I used that route frequently in the early 1970s, travelling from my parent's home in Ipswich to Sheffield (with no changing required). It had some of the oldest rolling stock in the country, with the 'corridor + compartment' coaches where clouds of dust rose from the seats when you sat down. There was always a buffet car on the train but there was rarely anyone to actually staff it!

As has been mentioned above, the service disappeared when the railways were privatised (presumably because no single operator could make it pay).

You can, with several changes of train, still travel along the same route (Parkeston Quay [now Harwich International], Ipswich, Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Ely, March, Peterborough, Sheffield Midland [now simply Sheffield], Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool).

However, to connect to or from the daily StenaLine ferries, there's now a daily through train from Harwich International to Cambridge, which might provide more convenient connections for some travellers.

Chris

[paulrf]

Thanks to everyone for all the information. I guess it must have been The North West Dane I travelled on.